Rachel and the
bears

Spending some days in Sequoia National Park I have been for the first time in my
life in a "bear active area" with wild bears around. I had no idea what this
really means. Also I could not believe all the stories told by other visitors
about bears breaking into cars, trying to get some food.

After my first night on one of
the camp sites close to the Giant Trees I can now understand what they were
talking about. No worries, it shouldn´t be dangerous as long as you follow the
rules. On every camp site you will find lockers for storing your food and other
stuff outside the car. Also you will find plenty of signs with instructions how
to behave.

Please read these signs
carefully and follow the instructions. It´s not only for your safety but
also for the safety of the bears. Bears, that get human food to often become so
bold, destructive and potentially dangerous that they must be destroyed. So it´s
up to you to help the bears to survive as wild bears !!

Trying to get one of these signs as a
souvenir I got in contact with Rachel who works as biologist and park ranger
in the Sequoia National Park. Beside her normal work she runs her own "bear
program" to help the bears to survive. To help Rachel in her work, I decided
to setup this page. If you also would like to help her you are very welcome to
send donations to the following adress :

The first (A) bear cought in 2001 (01). We
had to send her to a rehab center when she was only 6 pounds because her
mother was somehow killed and we replaced her in the park at 90 pounds
before the winter in a den we made. The next summer, she successfully made
it through the season as a wild bear.

"We did have a very sad occurence about two
weeks ago when a cub was hit and its paw smashed and it now sits by the road
looking pitiful before limping off after its mother and sibling cub. If I
could have one thing in this job, it would be to have people drive more slowly
! "

Rachel, November 2002

Disclaimer : This is not an official page
of or related in any way to the Sequoia National Park
(c) 2002 Rachel Mazur and Thomas Lösch